Apple continues to experience significant talent turnover in its artificial intelligence division, with at least four more AI researchers departing in recent weeks alongside a senior executive from its Siri team.
According to a Bloomberg report published on January 30, 2026, the latest exits include researchers Yinfei Yang, Haoxuan You, Bailin Wang, and Zirui Wang. These departures add to ongoing challenges for Apple’s AI efforts as the company works to advance features like an improved Siri and its broader Apple Intelligence platform.
The researchers’ moves are as follows:
• Yinfei Yang left to start a new company.
• Haoxuan You and Bailin Wang joined Meta Platforms Inc.
• You moved to Meta’s Superintelligence research arm.
• Bailin Wang is working on Meta recommendations.
These details come from people familiar with the matter, according to Gurman’s report, who asked not to be identified because the moves haven’t been announced.
In a separate but related departure, Stuart Bowers — one of Apple’s most senior executives working on Siri — left for Google DeepMind. Bowers’ role at Apple had expanded last year, and he reported to Siri chief Mike Rockwell. He had also previously worked on Apple’s now-defunct self-driving car project.
Gurman highlights that these staffers are heading to competitors such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Google DeepMind, underscoring the intense competition for AI expertise in the industry. The departures reflect continued turbulence within Apple’s AI division, where the company has faced difficulties keeping pace with rivals in generative AI and has relied and will be relying in large part on external partnerships, including with Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Google.
This latest wave of exits contributes to a broader pattern of talent movement away from Apple’s AI and machine learning teams in recent periods, amid efforts to enhance Siri and roll out more advanced on-device and cloud-based AI capabilities.
MacDailyNews Take: Given the current leadership, if you want to work on cutting-edge AI, Apple is not the place.
See also: Apple Intelligence. Powered by Google™. – January 20, 2026
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Hmm, any connection to the acquisition 0f Q.ai ?
Meta is throwing huge piles of cash to hire people in AI to compensate for the large numbers of researchers fleeing Meta.
It is much, much less about “huge piles of cash” than it is about a lack of leadership and vision at and near the top at Apple.
I personally know a senior management person (not a big enough name to be listed in an article on MacDailyNews, but still senior) who recently left Apple simply because they started forcing him to focus solely on THIS quarter and to hell with what is best for the next year or two or Apple in general. It effectively became, “Make more money today, or else.” Thus, he left Apple. That kind of thinking trickling down from the top will eventually lead Apple back to the dark days of the 90s.
Just one clear example is the failure to advance the top of the line Macs: the Pro and the Studio. They don’t get anywhere near as substantive upgrades or keep cadence with the laptops. Why not? Many years ago the top of the line Mac was so capable that the U.S. government had restrictions on to whom it could be exported. No one is saying anything like that about Macs today.
And, don’t get me started on the asinine pace of improvements in Apple’s monitors! The top of the line monitor from Apple has not seen any significant update for going on seven years!
This sounds like hot air. Just because your friend wasn’t in a long-term planning role doesn’t mean future moves aren’t being meticulously planned for years in advance. The top of the line Macs and monitors will be upgraded this year but thats such a tiny fraction of their revenue that its hardly worth mentioning. Like saying Macs being non-upgradeable is a major problem for Apple’s long-term business.
Tim Cook’s Apple banned song that mocks the woke.
Thou shalt not mock the woke. Apple Music deleted Holly Valance’s satirical song, thereby proving why it was so necessary.
https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/thou-shalt-not-mock-the-woke
Round pegs–Square holes…who fits the description? Both, but one is banned.
Think (ing) Different…not allowed–UNLESS the message abides.
Think’g the vid is dumb is an option–but prohibiting public presentation–we’re back to 2020 and AAP is the driver.
This not a coincidence Tim Cook riding high on publicity iPhone refresh spent the greater part of the presentation talking about to shows and movies while another group of innovators left the company
Tim you don’t understand innovation please go to Hollywood and find a new career
They called in the jackhammers at Cupertino and took out the entrances and installed turnstiles